Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist

Artist Lorenzo di Credi (Italian, 1458/1459 - 1537)

Dateca. 1510

MediumOil on panel with tempera highlights

DimensionsUnframed: 40 1/16 × 28 11/16 inches (101.76 × 72.87 cm)
Framed: 49 1/4 × 38 × 2 1/2 inches (125.1 × 96.52 × 6.35 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust

Object number39-3

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

European Art

Terms

DescriptionIn the center foreground is a seated woman (the Madonna) who wears a blue dress with a gold lining and a translucent veil. She holds a male baby (Christ) who sits on her lap; the baby holds his right hand up in a blessing gesture and looks at another baby (Saint John the Baptist) who kneels beside the Madonna. The group is placed on a carpet of wildflowers and sits in front of a group of trees. In the background is a body of water, with a rocky cliff at left and a distant cityscape at right.Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Exhibition of the Works of the Old Masters, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1871, no. 302.

Exhibition of Works by the Old Masters, Royal Academy of Arts, London, Winter 1892, no. 162.

In Leonardo’s Shadow: Drawings by His Followers, Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, March 22- May 25, 1986, no. 12.

Il Disego Fiorentino del Tempo di Lorenzo il Magnifico, Uffizi, Florence, April 8–July 5, 1992, no. 3.7.

Gallery Label

Lorenzo di Credi trained alongside the young Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) and fell under his spell. This painting is particularly indebted to the influence of Leonardo in the softness of the Virgin's face and the way the drapery closely follows the contours of her right arm and leg. The tree in the background is an arbutus or strawberry tree, whose leaves were used for medicinal purposes; therefore the painting may have been intended to invoke the Virgin's protection against illness. The townscape in the background is indistinct, possibly due to the effects of over-cleaning in the 19th century, which removed some of the surface detail.

Provenance

William Ward, 11th Baron Ward and 1st Earl of Dudley (1817-1885), Dudley House, London, by 1871-1885;

By descent to his son, William H. Ward, 2nd Earl of Dudley (1869-1932), 1885-June 25, 1892;

Purchased at his sale, The Highly Important Gallery of Pictures of the Late Rt. Hon. Earl of Dudley, Christie, Manson and Woods, London, June 25, 1892, lot 56, by J. and W. Vokins, London;

Edward Steinkopff (1837-1906), London and Lydhurst, Waringlid, Haywards Heath, Sussex, by 1906;

By descent to his daughter, Mary Margaret (née Steinkopff, 1862-1933) Stewart-Mackenzie, Baroness Seaforth, Brahan Castle, Ross-shire, Scotland, 1906-1933;

By descent to the Steinkopff trustees, 1933-May 24, 1935;

Purchased at their sale, Ancient and Modern Pictures and Drawings Sold by Order of the Trustees of the Estate of the late Edward Steinkopff, Esq., Christie’s, London, May 24, 1935, lot 74, by A. de Casseres [1];

With Howard Young Galleries, New York, by 1935 [2];

With Paul Drey Gallery, New York, by May 1938-1939 [3];

Purchased from Drey by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1939.

NOTES:

[1] This is presumably Arthur de Casseres, a dealer with a shop at 27 St. James’s Street, London.

[2] According to an annotation on a photograph in the Frick Art Reference Library, New York.

[3] Nelson-Atkins Director Paul Gardner first saw this painting at Paul Drey Gallery in May 1938, as recorded in the Nelson-Atkins Archives, Trustees Minutes, August 29, 1938.

Published References

Exhibition of the Works of the Old Masters associated with works of Deceased Masters of the British School, exh. cat. (London: William Clowes and Sons, 1871), 28, (repro.).

Exhibition of Works by the Old Masters, exh. cat. (London: Royal Academy of the Arts, 1892), 36, (repro.).

Catalogue of the Highly Important Gallery of the late Rt. Hon. Earl of Dudley (London: Christies, Manson and Woods, June 25, 1892), unpaginated, (repro.).

Gustavo Frizzoni, “Miscellanea – importanti aste di opera d’arte a Londra e Parigi,” Archivo Storico dell’Arte 5 (1892): 360.

Bernhard Degenhart, “A Madonna by Lorenzi di Credi,” Burlington Magazine 58 (1931): 45-46, 51, (repro.).

Raimond van Marle, The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting, vol. 13 (The Hague: Niijhoff, 1931), 314n3.

Bernhard Degenhart, “Die Schuler des Lorenzo di Credi,” Münchner Jahrbuch der bildenden Kunst 9 (1932): 160.

Catalogue of Ancient and Modern Pictures and Drawings, Sold by Order of the Trustees of the Estate of the late Edward Steinkoff, Esq., Removed from 47 Berkeley Square, W. 1, Old Pictures, The Property of F.C. Schweder, Esq., Removed from Newnton Priory, Tetbury, Glos., The Property of lady Juliet Duff and from other sources (London: Christie, Manson and Woods, May 24, 1935), 14–15, (repro.).

A.C.R. Carter, The Year’s Art, 1936 (London: Hutchinson and Co., 1936), 279.

Alfred M. Frankfurter, The Virgin and Child with the Infant St. John by Lorenzo di Credi (1459- 1537) (New York, 1937), unpaginated, (repro.).

“A Notable Documented Lorenzo di Credi for Kansas City: ‘Madonna and Child with St. John,” Art News 37 (March 18, 1939): 6, (repro.).

“Madonna and Child,” The Kansas City Star (December 24, 1939): magazine section, p. 1, (repro.).

Helen Comstock, “The Connoisseur in America: Lorenzo di Credi Madonna,” Connoisseur 103 (1939): 275 (repro.).

“Recent Important Acquisitions by American Museums,” The Art Quarterly 2 (1939): 282 (repro.).

The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, The William Rockhill Nelson Collection, 2^nd ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1941), 28 (repro.).

The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, The William Rockhill Nelson Collection, 3^rd ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1949), 41 (repro.).

Ross E. Taggart, ed., Handbook of the Collections in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 4^th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1959), 63 (repro.).

Gerald Reitlinger, The Economics of Taste: The Rise and Fall of Picture Prices, 1760-1960 (London: Barrie and Rockliff, 1961), 354.

Bernard Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: Florentine School, vol. 1 (London and New York: Phaidon, 1963), 115.

Gigetta Dalli Regoli, Lorenzo di Credi (Milan: Edizioni di Comunita, 1966), 62, 65, 104, 160, (repro.).

Burton B. Fredericksen and Federico Zeri, Census of Pre-Nineteenth-Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1972), 110, 326, 589.

Ross E. Taggart and George L. McKenna, eds., Handbook of the Collections in The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Missouri, vol. 1, Art of the Occident, 5^th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1973), 82, (repro.).

Michel Laclotte and Elisabeth Mognetti, Avignon, Musée du Petit Palais: Peinture italienne, 2^nd ed. (Paris: Edité par Musées Nationaux, 1977), unpaginated, (repro.).

Stanislaw Lorentz and Kenneth Robinson, 100 of the Finest Drawings from Polish Collections, exh. cat. (London: Heim Gallery, 1980), unpaginated, (repro.).

Holliday T. Day and Hollister Sturges, eds., Joslyn Art Museum: Paintings & Sculpture from the European and American Collections (Omaha: University of Nebraska Press, 1987), 25.

Rosanna De Gennaro, “Una proposta per Pietro de Saliba,” Prospettiva, nos. 53-56 (April 1988-Janrary 1989): 286, 286n25, 287, (repro.).

Annamaria Petrioli Tofani, Il Disego Fiorentino del Tempo di Lorenzo il Magnifico, exh. cat. (Florence: Silvana Editoriale, 1992), 90, (repro.).

Michael Churchman and Scott Erbes, High Ideals and Aspirations: The Nelson–Atkins Museum of Art, 1933–1993 (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 63-66, 114 (repro.).

Anna Kozak and Maciej Monkiewicz, Master Drawings from Polish Collections, exh. cat. (Washington: Trust for Museum Exhibitions, 1993), 14, 38, (repro.).

Christopher Lloyd, Italian Paintings Before 1600 in The Art Institute of Chicago: A Catalogue of the Collection (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1993), 12-13, (repro.).

Roger Ward and Patricia J. Fidler, eds., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection (New York: Hudson Hills Press, in association with Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 30, 129, 153 (repro.).

Eliot W. Rowlands, Italian Paintings, 1300-1800: The Collections of the Nelson–Atkins Museum of Art (Kansas City, MO: The Nelson–Atkins Museum of Art, 1996), 18, 21, 27, 138–146, (repro.).

Information about a particular artwork or image, including provenance information, is based upon historic information and may not be currently accurate or complete. Research on artwork and images is an ongoing process, and the information about a particular artwork or image may not reflect the most current information available to the Museum. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about a particular artwork or image, please e-mail provenance@nelson-atkins.org.